


New Employee

by PrimeBubbleLad



Series: Tommy is a great friend [1]
Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half-Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Mild Abuse, Nonbinary Benrey, Tommy is best, everyone's so mean to Benrey, they/he Benrey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:27:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26155732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrimeBubbleLad/pseuds/PrimeBubbleLad
Summary: Benrey is just doing their usual job, getting uncool hate from co-workers. But a new employee has arrived and seems pretty cool.
Relationships: Benrey & Tommy Coolatta
Series: Tommy is a great friend [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927417
Comments: 4
Kudos: 60





	New Employee

**Author's Note:**

> Tommy and Benrey friendships are too cute so I had to do somethin' for it

Benrey rested against the doorframe of the Black Mesa entrance, kicking dust from under their shoe. The other guards nowhere to be seen, good, they weren’t in the mood to be around anyone. They can do their job perfectly fine alone.

It could get lonely sometimes, but their usual ‘friends’ didn’t work today, kinda sucks having every day and every hour be your work hours. Not like the company appreciates all the work they do, taking the job very seriously yet keeping up a great sense of humour. Not their fault people are so cold and too dumb to find them funny.

Benrey hummed to themselves until they caught a figure in the corner of their eye, ah shit not HIM. Benrey straightened up and looked at the man walking forward, another guard. Though more like the racist cop kinda guy.

“Oh boy, its uh, is it break time already eh man?” Benrey said in a monotone, not wanting to be near this guy.

“No. Its not like you take this job seriously.” The other said, getting uncomfortably close. Benrey rolled their eyes.

“Of course, I take this, uh, seriously! I am like the best at this job man.” Benrey defended, keeping a smug grin on their face. The guard glared at Benrey.

“Yeah you have to take it seriously, considering what’ll happen if you fuck up AGAIN.” Benrey’s grin faded and turned to a scowl. They tapped against their leg lightly.

“Hm, yeah I know. I uh, will be the best guard man. Much better than you. You lil pissass bitch baby-AH!” Benrey’s face collided with the wall as the guard punched the side of their face, they let out a short chuckle before receiving another blow to the face that sent them onto the ground. Benrey growled and attempted to get up, only to have the guard stomp on their throat and hold them there.

“H-Hey!”

Both guards freeze and look over and the very tall man standing by, Benrey took the opportunity to bite the other guard’s leg hard. The guard shrieked and removed his foot from Benrey’s neck.  
How the fuck did they reach the guard’s leg to bite?

The guard looked up at the scientist towering over him.

“Mr Coolatta, I uh, was not expecting to see you here?” The guard said.

“What were you doing to them…? Why were you h-hurting them…?” Tommy asked, his hands tightly pressed together and worriedly looking over at Benrey.

“Him? Your father has surely told you what a pain HE is.”

“T-That is no reason to h-harm someone… I will tell dad if you’re mean again.” Tommy warned, the guard huffed.

“Whatever, you’re too soft on people. You’ll see he’s not worth the trouble.” He stormed off, Benrey sitting up against the corner of the room wiping blood off from under their nose. Benrey looked up and quietly growled at Tommy who had knelt beside them.

“Hey… It’s okay, why was that guard hurting you…?” Benrey flinched away from Tommy’s hands, keeping quiet and looking away. Tommy pulled his hands away and kept kneeling beside them. They stayed there for a decent while, Benrey thought Tommy would’ve left by now but he didn’t… he stayed, for some reason.

“Do you need help getting up…?” Tommy asked, Benrey stared up at him. He seems nice but, what if he’s going to be mean too?

“Uh, sure bro, that’d be cool.” Benrey replied as they took Tommy’s hand. Tommy lifted them up and smiled, Benrey had to bend their neck to look up at his face.

“Do you want to take some time off duty? I uh, I can tell dad I allowed it, we can go get some soda?” Tommy said, Benrey raised their eyebrow questionably.

“Uh, cool. Sure, I guess.” They agreed.

“Oh uh, I’m Tommy!” Tommy said, shaking Benrey’s hand. Benrey’s mind went blank for a bit, but Tommy patiently waited while Benrey took a minute to respond.

“Uh, oh, nice. I’m Benrey.” They finally replied, Tommy smiled and started walking down to the break room with Benrey beside him.

“Does that guard hurt you often?” Tommy asked, Benrey shrugged.

“Yeah, most of them do. Most people here do. They uh, they’re pretty mean bro.”

“T-That’s not good… Why does no one help you?”

“Wha…? Oh, I, I dunno man, they just don’t.” Tommy nodded sadly and continued walking, other guards glared at Benrey as they walked past, some scientists waved to Tommy but ignored the other. Tommy got to the door and opened it for Benrey, offering them to go inside. Benrey was a little surprised at the kindness the taller scientist was showing to them, it wasn’t something they were used to while being here. Which was a long time. There was barely anyone in the room, not surprising, it was the time most of the scientists were out doing their testing shit. But they felt a bit uneasy when they noticed Tommy had gotten them in a room alone, they backed against the wall and watched him closely.

“So… your uh, last name sounds familiar?” Benrey said, Tommy was at the vending machine looking at the options.

“Oh! My dad works here, he helped me uh, get the job. I’ve been learning about this place since I was a kid!” Tommy answered excitedly. He was like a happy child; it took some off some of the tenses off Benrey.

“Your dad? Huh… hm…” Benrey wondered who his dad was, hopefully not just using his kid to get to them. “And what made you uh, want to work in this shithole?” Benrey asked.

“What? I like it here a lot! I’m a scientist, so it’s great to be doing science stuff.” Tommy answered. “What soda do you want?” He added. Benrey shrugged.

“I’ll drink anything…” Benrey said, Tommy nodded and put coins into the machine slot. Benrey watched as he pressed the buttons and two soda cans fell down. Tommy knelt and grabbed them out of the machine, one was a Pepsi and the other a Sunkist. Tommy sat on the table Benrey was standing beside and handed them the Pepsi, Benrey took it and cracked the can open, taking a huge gulp of it. Tommy opened his can and drank intensely, the two of them slurping the drinks loudly.

“How long have you been working here??” Tommy asked. Benrey went blank for a moment.

“Uh… um… a very long time, like, most of my life.” They answered. Benrey looked at Tommy and noticed he was waiting for more. “I don’t want to talk about it man, private uh, documents bro. Need the password.” They finished. Tommy smiled and nodded. Benrey looked down at their drink in their hands, then back at Tommy. Something seemed… familiar about him, they couldn’t quite put it clearly in their head. Then again, they struggled to have things clear in their head to begin with.

“You uh, I dunno have I seen you before bro?” They asked, Tommy looked at Benrey.

“Uh, I don’t know? I don’t know a lot of people…” Tommy said sadly, he would’ve held his hands together if he wasn’t holding a soda can. “I was um, home-schooled, this is the first time I’ve uh, been able to meet people.” He continued. Benrey nodded.

“I uh, got taken out of school and brought, here… at a young age, was very uncool.” Benrey said. “Never seen the people I knew since bro, just been livin’ here.”

“What…? But, but all your friends?”

“I mean, I only had one fwiendy wendy.” Benrey chuckled sadly, they flopped down onto the desk on their back and looked up at the ceiling. Tommy sipped the last drop of soda and threw the can into the bin. He looked at Benrey and crossed his legs.

“Maybe we can make new friends!” Tommy said excitedly.

“Wha? Nah, no one likes me bro…”

“I do!” Benrey looked and raised an eyebrow.

“Wha?”

“Yeah! We can be friends?” Tommy asked, big innocent eyes staring at them. Benrey felt a small warmth in their chest at someone… wanting to care about them. It would be nice to not have someone wanting to make you feel awful.

“Uh, yeah, okay, you seem nice, super pog.” Benrey said, probably not thinking at all as words just left their mouth, a few orbs fly out their mouth.

“That made you happy??” Tommy asked, Benrey stared.

“You, can understand?” Tommy nodded. Benrey smiled and blew out some more orbs.

“Blue to green means you’re not mean.” Tommy said happily, Benrey smiled wider and sat up.

“What are you doing in here!?”

Benrey and Tommy looked up and saw another guard at the door, glaring at Benrey.

“Huh? Was just havin’ a break bro. Just chugging some soda man.” Benrey groaned.

“I asked them to join me for break, i-its okay!” Tommy defended. The guard scoffed.

“Well both of you need to get back to work.” The guard walked out, not without giving Benrey another death glare. As if Benrey gave a shit.

“Welp, guess we gotta uh, go back to being boring.” Benrey said, Tommy sighed and nodded.

“What’s up bro?” Benrey asked, noticing Tommy’s frown.

“I uh, I d-didn’t mean to get you i-in trouble…” Tommy said, Benrey was… unsure how to react to that. It’s been a long time since someone cared, how were they supposed to react?

“But, you uh, didn’t bro? It was the meanie that was being uncool and uh…” Benrey trailed off. Tommy nodded and got up off the table, he grabbed Benrey’s hand and pulled them up onto their feet.

“Oh uh, thanks. Sweet.” Benrey grinned.

“I’ll see you after work??” Tommy asked.

“Uh sure! Sounds super dope.” Benrey replied, Tommy smiled widely and hurried off to go do his job. Benrey’s smile lingered on their face, maybe not all workers here are the worst. Maybe he’ll enjoy some video games. 


End file.
